Houston’s effort, dubbed “The Way Home,” takes the ‘Housing First’ approach — putting the homeless in permanent housing before tackling any underlying issues that led to their situation. The program allowed Utah to reduce homelessness by 91% over ten years.

A monumental effort coordinated between more than 70 government, business, religious, nonprofit, and charitable groups to tackle the homelessness problem, earned Houston an award in December from the National Alliance to End Homelessness.